April 2020

Humans are storytelling creatures: the stories we tell have profound implications for how we see our role in the world, and dystopian fiction keeps growing in popularity. According to Goodreads.com, an online community that has grown to 90 million readers, the share of books categorised as ‘dystopian’ in 2012 was the highest for more than 50 years. […] What should we make of the fact that dystopian fiction is so popular?

On March 30, the Hungarian parliament adopted legislation providing for “emergency powers” to better respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. The international reaction has been quite predictable, with critics of Prime Minister Orbán calling it a “power grab.” As often happens during times of crisis (in this case, a pandemic) people are in the grip of intense emotions—so it behooves us to stand up for the truth.

The coronavirus killed internationalism. Specifically, it has ended free movement between countries and international control over national budgets.

As the world battles the global coronavirus pandemic, Budapest stands accused of using the crisis to enshrine authoritarianism via parliamentary vote—by giving conservative prime minister Victor Orbán extraordinary powers forever. An angry clamor has gone up, calling for Hungary to be expelled from NATO and the EU. Such calls are premature, however. There is no plot to destroy democracy on the Danube.

A little over two months ago, we celebrated the successful ‘National Conservatism’ conference held in Rome under the auspices of the Edmund Burke Foundation, and several other European and American organizations. The feeling of optimism there, and the bold ideas that many of its speakers communicated to the world, was nothing short of remarkable.